Afterthought
by Dynnzel
Summary: Optimus Prime is long gone, but the universe continues to turn for the rest of Transformers. War is not so easily left behind.
1. Chapter 1

With the passing of Optimus Prime, the only thing that kept the team from falling apart completely was the prospect of a new future. The first thing they began to repair were the deep space communication towers. They had to reach out to the refugees of tragedy, to let them know that hope had not died in vain. Despite constant reminding that Bumblebee was not trying to be a leader, he found himself being the final opinion on several matters. He did his best to settle matters but he was starting to feel like none of his decisions were ever good enough. Frustration bubbled just underneath everyone's hoods, there was so much to repair and not enough abled minds and bodies to do it in a timely fashion. Everyone simply wanted to leave the war behind as quickly as possible. Bumblebee felt that rebuilding would only be the start of the healing process. The newly knighted warrior idled along one of the back roadways. It had used to be a main transportation line but had been smashed at too many points to be useful anymore. Bumblebee preferred going on these long scouting ventures, partly to make sure no mischief was afoot, partly so that he could get away from all the chat with Ultra Magnus. When he passed a few working class Decepticons, they stopped their survey and watched him carefully. It was as if they were waiting for him to hit them or something. Now that Bumblebee thought of it, he'd lost count of how many times he alone had bowled through a group of them. Gears turned with a burst of energy and his engine rumbled with speed at his whim, scattering iron filings all across the road. The sky above roiled with restlessness, a possible electrical storm brewing on the horizon. Light finally graced Cybertron with its presence as the energon reservoirs bubbled to full capacity. Some of these canyons were damaged by war and time, so spilled their precious contents in massive glowing rivers across the landscape. Bumblebee grunted when his tires hit a rather large crack in the road. Prompted by the painful jolt, the young warrior to transform and continue on foot. This portion of the road on the outer city limits was completely demolished. Massive sections jutted up against the sky like gravestones for the fallen. A flash of blue metal caught his optic and he found Arcee sitting just off of the freeway, stabilizing servos dangling over the edge. She looked up when he approached, greeting him with a smile, however her optics betrayed her true feelings. "How's the patrol?" she asked casually. "Quiet... not sure if I like that or not." his voice squeaked a bit at the end of his sentence, he still wasn't used to responding properly. Bumblebee followed her gaze to the plains that was still spitting up shoots of colored light. "He's still burning." He felt pain ripple across his spark, he didn't like seeing Arcee like this. She cared the most for all of them. With each loss in her life the femme seemed to retreat further and further into her thoughts. "Uh... did you see Wheeljack and Bulkhead off?" She nodded without looking at him, "They went into the upper atmosphere to fix some deep space satellites." "Good... good." Bumblebee shifted from one foot to the other. He made an offer for her to join his patrol but she took a rain check, saying she needed some quiet. The mech took the hint and continued on his way. Pieces of rust and rubble scattered out of the giants way as he slid down to the second level of road since it seemed a bit more in tact. From time to time he came across the remains of a Transformer, whether they were autobot or decepticon he couldn't always tell. It made him think that death made them all anonymous and forgotten. His armor rattled as he shook off a chill. He suddenly wished he hadn't watched so many scary movies with the children. The air suddenly shifted with the beating of wings. Bumblebee tensed instinctively and bolted for the nearest cover, kneeling just out of sight. From the wingbeats themselves he could tell it was only one predacon, they beat too fast for it to be Predaking so it was either Dreadwing or Skylinx. That was the only crack in foundation for a better future. Shockwave was still out there somewhere, influencing and creating more of these beasts. Predaking had helped them out of necessity in the final battle, who knows what the young entity's intentions for the long term were for. While the predacons had a respect for boundries so long as you showed them you could match their strength, if they were wild like the animals back on Earth, it would only be a matter of time before they demanded more territory, or be played in a game by Shockwave's hand. Bumblebee continued to listen, a loud thud and the scattering of rocks sounded. Snuffling followed closely and a very loud expulsion of dust (or a sneeze as a human would call it). Bumblebee risked a peek around the boulder to find Skylynx sniffing amidst the dirt. The winged beasts' optics narrowed and a low growl rippled through the air. Bumblebee ducked out of sight when the other's gaze passed in his direction. When he peered back he saw the tips of Skylynx's wingtips disappear over the side. A more thorough search revealed nothing more than the fact that Skylynx had continued on foot, searching for whatever was on his mind. Bumblebee weighed the benefit of following the beast and decided he didn't feel like disturbing the silence today. Somewhere below Bumblebee's feet was the sound of massive gears shifting against each other with difficulty. The sky grumbled its displeasure. "It's going to be a long road." Bumblebee sighed. 


	2. Chapter 2

With the current workforce available, restoration of Cybertron was restricted to one city block at a time unless you counted main supply routes. Workers began spreading out, using old maps to see what major mines and factories were still recoverable or not blocked off. A ripple of excitement boosted the morale of the small population when a salvageable assembly line was found. They simply had to locate the parts from other places to complete the machines.

The scavenger hunt began with splitting up groups of workers led by bots like Arcee, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Knock Out and Ultra Magnus.

Ratchet managed to get one of the transportation systems up and running that could take one of the groups about halfway to their destination in the industrial section. The platform moaned and parts fell off as the engine rattled to life, however the main structure remained firmly intact.

"I've always wondered what first class seating was like." Arcee chuckled as she hopped up onto the ramp after her the workers were loaded. As if in answer to her sarcasm the entire platform shook.

"It's amazing isn't it." Bumblebee retorted.

"Alright kids, your destination is a few clicks outside of the industrial sector-."

"Why couldn't you just drop us off at the loading station?" Knock Out sighed.

"Well I would if that part of the track wasn't missing."

"Oh..." the mech stepped back.

"Please continue, Ratchet." Ultra Magnus stepped by the medics side, his looming presence guaranteed to stop anymore inquiries.

"As I was saying, a few clicks outside the sector. I've loaded several points of reference that I hope are still there. The Cons blew that area to rubble when we took over it in the war." there was an uncomfortable shift among the workers, visors glancing back and forth.

"Thank you, Ratchet, these will be most helpful." Ultra Magnus said as he examined his own miniature holomap. He then addressed the team leaders, "We will split up to the various areas that held known assembly lines, be cautious of unstable structures and possibly Predacons."

"Predacons? Aren't they on our side?" a worker asked.

The mech's optics narrowed and his mouth pressed together firmly, "They are survivors, survivors do what they must."

The rest of the briefing went by with only a few more questions. Bumblebee and Arcee's team would head toward one subsection and then split up from there to cover even more ground from there.

Broken and conquered, the landscape of Cybertron flew by silently. When they exited the train, Arcee was greeted with a coat of rust sticking to her treads and the collapsed section where they used to make armor. The femme would've found the sight tragic if the glow of refilling energon reservoirs didn't light the way. She recalled the last days she was on Cybertron when the rivers stopped flowing completely, and the Allspark had grown cold. The light was a reminder that this land was not a sad graveyard of ideas, but a new canvas to improve upon.

"We'll see you on the other side." Bumblebee said as he took his team down another path.

"Last one to find the components buys the energon tonight." Arcee called after him. The civilians in her group chuckled at the notion and the mood seemed to lighten a bit. Despite still branded with Decepticon logos, Arcee did not fear them turning.

There was simply no reason to anymore.

They combed the factories for useable items other than their goal. Yet each warehouse they found was either consumed by rust or long destroyed. Arcee had to save one of the techs from falling down an ill used stairway that shattered underneath his foot strut. The hours passed with nothing but failure and clogged vents to show for it.

Arcee was helping hold half a wall up while some bots picked apart an old engine when a builder ran up from behind, "Arcee, we may have found something.

"May or have?"

He shuffled uncomfortably, "It's blocked off, non of us can fit through without the wall collapsing."

"Alright." someone took over for the femme as she followed the other further down into the warehouse they were collecting from. When they arrived, he pointed through a tangled mess of cable, pipes and rigging. Arcee took note of the precarious balance this wall had. Seemed like a whisper could touch it and it would come falling down. She peered through the dust to see an assembly line much like the one Ratchet described, although rusty and worn out, it had survived the ravages of time and war. She stood back to see if she could climb over the wall or make it fall down so she wouldn't have to deal with it.

"Well, looks like the ceiling collapsed... so... no breaking this down." Arcee sighed.

"We already tried... one of us broke his legs."

"I heard his scream."

The femme stretched out her flexible armored plating before stepping carefully over the first support beam. The tech had been right, the way they were all designed they were either too tall or too wide to fit through this mess. Arcee had to resist the urge to jump when some loose cables touched her back, dust and dirt scrambled out of their ancient resting places, muting the shine on her surface.

At last she twisted and danced her way through the chorus of chaos and was at the machine. The ceiling had split in two from a blast, so the sky above her was clear, making her more confident in her tinkering with anything.

"The cog we're looking for should be in the center past the grinding plates. Looks like this!" the tech shouted, brandishing a holographic image from his wrist for Arcee's reference. The femme carefully picked through the bolts and screws that held the machine together. The cog was unique for the assembly line, unfortunately it shattered easily so if the one in this was in tact they'd be golden to start the manufacturing of more tools at a faster rate.

Luck smiled on Arcee as she plucked the cog from its resting place in tact, "There you are my missing beauty." she chuckled. Her smile was short lived when a heavy shadow passed over her.

There was a cry of astonishment from the techs as they backed into cover while Skylynx hovered over the ruins. Arcee backed up as far as she dared into the rubble, kneeling on one knee to make herself smaller. The great beast landed with surprising grace despite his weight. He twisted over the machine Arcee had just been picking through, sharp optics examining every nook and cranny.

Skylynx's attention then turned to Arcee. He snapped his beak a couple times before thumping the ground with his front paws then twisting up into his bipedal mode, the shock wave causing several support beams to smash against the ground.

"Give it here dearie." he grinned sharply.

"What do you need an assembly line part for?" she asked.

"I don't need just that part I need the whole thing, the king demands it."

"Well, you can go tell Predaking that he can talk to Ultra Magnus if he wants one, we need these."

Skylynx had little patience for words, he swelled up to his full height over Arcee, not knowing that she feared very few since she had fought no one but titans compared to her size. The lack of her response to his animalistic puffing seemed to annoy Skylynx further but whatever he was about to do next was interrupted by blaster fire that connected to his shoulder.

"No! Stop!" Arcee's command came way too late as the skittish builders took the offense.

Skylynx transformed, spinning in a circle that destroyed any integrity left in the rubble around them. Arcee heard the gulp of air for the beasts breath weapon and leaped to interfere. She grabbed one of his audio receptors and yanked, pulling him just enough that his flame missed its intended target.

"Stop it! All of you!" she yelled as she dropped to the floor, rolling to avoid Skylynx's tail. The builders nerve was as fragile as the warehouse around them and they fled back the way they came as what was left of the passage collapsed.

Insult to injury Arcee would have time for later, right now she was trapped with the now furious Skylynx. The Predacon turned his energy on her, thundering in her direction, armored plating raised like an organic animal's hackles.

The femme held her ground and rolled just in time to avoid his swiping claws, powerful though he was and a menace in the sky, Skylynx lacked the agility he needed to catch the femme on the ground.

Quick as a bullet Arcee ran across the open space and slid underneath several pipes before dropping down on what used to be the loading dock area for ships. She didn't need to see Skylynx to know he was still coming after her, the ceiling here was too low for flight so he bowled through the scrap she'd so carefully slipped through earlier. Arcee had hoped beyond all hope that the Predacons would remain peaceful but perhaps this was just in their nature... to be aggressive till the end.

Weaving in and out of the abandoned crates Arcee ran till she heard no more crashes behind her and even then she didn't stop till she was outside of the warehouse. She paused to collect herself behind a pillar and waited. The crashes started again but these were accompanied by snarls and yips of another kind. Dreadwing must've shown up and the two were having a minor scuffle it seemed. It was short lived as they picked up what remained of the assembly machine and took off into the star lit sky.

When they all regrouped, Ultra Magnus was less than pleased at what the builders had started. Arcee became their shield though, while she was no more happy with their actions they were not soldiers. Ultra Magnus could not expect them to react to stressful situations the same way.

"They panicked, sir." Arcee said firmly, "They were only trying to save me." she could practically feel the shame behind her as the former cons shrank away from the arguing leaders.

"Panic is no excuse!" the large mech growled.

"Panic is to be expected from bots that have hardly participated in battle." Arcee threw back, "If you're so worried about safety then perhaps we should've brought more of the warrior class with us. Besides, no one was harmed, and we have the part Ratchet needs."

"That is beside the point, they were the aggressors, challenging these Predacons means they will be up to returning the favor."

Bumblebee stepped forward, "Fighting is apart of their culture, sir. Perhaps it will not be seen as a permanent grudge."

"We will discuss this later, everyone will return to base, we've found most of the parts today." Ultra Magnus commanded. Everyone submitted to this command easily, all ushering toward the train silently. Arcee heaved a huge sigh through her systems. It was never easy to get an idea through to Ultra Magnus, then again he'd worked with nothing but Wreckers for the better portion of time.

"Arcee."

She turned to look at her crew, dirty and still shaking it seemed. The one that stepped forward was designated as E-14, from the Age of Rust when the imagination of Cybertron had come to a grinding halt after the plague.

"What?"

"I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

Despite his alterations that made him look like a Decepticon, Arcee saw none of their malice. Simply a frightened bot who wanted guidance in his life. That's what most of the sparklings from the Age of Rust wanted. The fact that he, a humble electrician had opened fire on something so monstrous with the intent to save her it suddenly seemed silly to be angry with him.

"Just, try talking first, before shooting next time. Every action you take on the battlefield will affect the rest." she said carefully. E-14 nodded before he and the rest of the crew boarded the train.

The ride back home seemed to be more silent than before, the techs muttered amidst themselves or hid in a corner as best they could. Arcee sat in the front car as it had the most room for Ratchet to go over some of the more critical items before they got home.

"What's wrong, Arcee?" Bumblebee asked as he handed her a cube of energon.

She narrowed her optics, taking the cube with hardly a look, "The Predacons don't need technology to make... well anything really. They hunt for their energon, everything they need is on them... so why need an assembly line engine?"

"A good question." Bumblebee sat down next to her as there were no seats, they all sat on the floor.

"Maybe Shockwave convinced them that he can make a Predacon army." Knock Out suggested.

"I hope not, those things hit hard." Smokescreen rubbed the back of his helm where a claw mark still was.

"Short of obvious uses with an army, I don't see any benefit to trying to take us over. Or even for Shockwave to take Cybertron over."

"Ohh... you don't know Shockwave... dominance doesn't give him a lick of pleasure, manipulation and experimentation does. I'm sure if he had the resources he would tinker with the universe itself if he could and even in my opinion some of the things he's created should just stay un-created." Knock Out shivered at some far off memory.

"So... he might still be a problem in the future?" Bumblebee asked.

The red car shrugged, "More than likely, you heard all those stories of him experimenting with graphs on prisoners yeah? Well, he can get worse, sometimes I feel like those I was sent to torture information out of preferred my company over his." he watched their reactions carefully, still timid amidst their ranks. The ex-con was selfish about his life that he gave no question about, but if he were to survive it would have to be with the Autobots, who still frowned upon him from time to time. Knock Out was surprised Ultra Magnus hadn't thrown him in a cell yet.

Luckily for him, no one seemed to care about his past faults at the moment.

Arcee sipped her drink and turned her attention to the glowing horizon. Would they see the skies fill with another kind of tyranny in her life time? The thought sent her tank boiling and she set her energon down, no longer hungry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Just wanted to say I appreciate those interested in the story :) I know it's a bit slow paced right now, I just write when the mood strikes.**

Ultra Magnus' concern over the Predacons became so unbearable that Bumblebee actually left to find Predaking just to soothe the mech's nerves. However no matter where Bumblebee looked the dragon was nowhere to be found. There were sparatic skirmishes with the king's lackeys, no sign of Shockwave. Eventually the fear was lulled to the back of their minds with time and the arrival of new Cybertronians. One of the space bridge's was repaired to the point that they could receive deep space transmissions from seeded planets like Velocitron. Ratchet remembered that fateful day when Sentinel Prime had declared quarantine and all Cybertron had all but ceased to grow. When he'd traveled with Optimus across the stars in a fruitless chase after the Allspark, they'd found Velocitron still alive and uninfected by the plague. Now that the war was over, Ratchet and Bumblebee convinced Ultra Magnus that they should be allowed to travel to Cybertron if they so wished.

The whisperings of other seeded planets came through the comms the further they repaired and reached back out to the stars they'd abandoned so long ago. Some were elated, others bitter, but those were in smaller numbers. The news of a rejuvenating Cybertron reached all who would listen, happiness bubbled through space and time.

The Great War was truly over, the Age of Renewal marked its beginning in the archives.

Healing was timid at best, many bots refused to work with the once Decepticons and fights were near the surface at all times. Ultra Magnus maintained some semblance of order by making sure everyone was busy, busy with building, busy with recovering artifacts, busy busy busy. The bees from Earth would've been proud. Some groups that returned or had been in hiding splintered from the population hunkering down in Iacon, claiming they wanted freedom and not bureaucracy.

They were left to their freedom.

"The energon rivers are starting to reach optimum flow." Bulkhead was saying as he examined a damaged terminal, "Soon we can try to open the space bridges to transport matter and not just signals. Ha! Maybe we can bring the kids to a race at Velocitron when they're off school!"

"Bulkhead the radation from Velocitron's star is too high." Arcee said from where she was holding some tools for Ratchet.

"Oh yeah..."

"Doesn't mean we can't update those out of date space suits of theirs." Wheeljack added. He backed up quickly along with Ratchet when the board shorted out and spit sparks at them.

"Scrap..." Ratchet sighed.

"What do you think, Doc?" Wheeljack asked.

The bot jerked his head up, "Hmm? Oh... uh yes, it's possible."

"You alright?"

"What? I'm fine." Ratchet turned and grabbed the entire box from Arcee who almost tipped over from the abrupt change in weight.

The femme gave him a look, "Ratchet..." she reached out and touched his arm. He responded by stiffening, but he didn't shun her away. Optimus leaving had been very hard on the doctor, Arcee felt like he'd seen more than enough pain in his life time. She simply hoped that the method of Optimus' departure was a saving grace.

The red and white bot heaved a gulp of air through his systems, "We would have to ensure the children's safety before even bringing them to see what's left of our culture." his optics brightened just a tad, "It's currently every bot for himself out there."

"That's not such a bad thing." Wheeljack chuckled, recalling the days when the Wreckers were a dominant force. Some might call them bullies. Secretly Wheeljack thought that correct, Ulra Magnus had simply guided their righteous fury in a more productive force for society. Of course he would never tell the bot that.

"Well... if we bring the children to see a race you can be the body guard." Ratchet grumbled as he examined a few electronic panels, "We're going to need to find a new one, the workers haven't been able to find anyone that knows how to make these yet so they're starting from scratch."

"Yaayyy another scavenger hunt." Bulkhead pushed himself to his feet, tossing the oilcan he'd been sipping on away.

"Come on Bulk, Miko would be proud to see you smashing through so much stuff." Wheeljack chuckled.

"I know that's why I've been recording it all and sending it back to Earth with some of her favorite music attached." the two Wreckers vacated the room, leaving Ratchet fumbling with a few more parts.

"Do you want to come with, Ratchet?"

"No."

"Might get your mind off things."

"I get my mind off things by fixing them... fixing what I can." Ratchet didn't look up, an edge to his voice.

She pressed her lip plates together, then tried another angle, "Have you spoken to any of the kids, recently."

"No, why?"

"They said they miss you."

This got the old mech to look up finally, as if being gently tugged from a far off painful memory.

"Think about it, you are apart of their hearts too ya know." she squeezed his shoulder guard before leaving the medic be.

Ratchet felt a fleeting wave of anger, anxiety, frustration boil across his spark, but the thought of hearing the humans pushed his fears aside. Their bumbling innocence was irritating, perhaps because it reminded him of the past for his species. Yet their valor and enthusiasm against a universe that was ultimately against them, brightened Ratchet's spirits. At times he didn't have the energy to go on, but all of the others around him spurred him. He made a note in his schedule of repairs to go to the space bridge to catch up with the humans.

His old spark might need some fixing of its own.

Out on the field, remnants of Team Prime gathered together simply for each other's company. Arcee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Bumblebee scavenged a new area. The two Wreckers were preoccupied with playing a game of lugging rather than looking for parts. Arcee raced Bumblebee through parts of the road that were still flat.

Size verse size, engine verse engine, terrain challenging them both. It was a fair match for both of them. The small group hardly looked through the treasures presented to them, instead they focused on the stars blazing above them, simmering with new found light in their sparks. Day by day the planet began to rumble and shift, major damage being repaired in most places as life flowed through its wounds.

They didn't pay attention to how far they'd gone until they actually hit the Sea of Rust. Bumblebee transformed and gazed across the expanse of red and orange.

"You ok, Bee?" Arcee asked, transforming herself since the fine powders got easily up in her cage.

"Yeah.. just thinking, 'bout Optimus you know. He would've been so happy to see Cybertron renewed."

"He can rest easy knowing that he brought the Allspark back with him." Arcee kicked a bit of powder around, eventually drawing a circle with the tip of her foot.

"Yeah I guess so, just wish he could experience it with us instead of... where ever he went." Bumblebee shrugged, "Ah it's no use to linger, right?" the young bot's optics traced the grains at his feet, as if trying to read a sign from the universe.

"You're nervous about this peace... aren't you?"

The bot's door wings perked up as well as his face, "What do you mean?"

"If the stories I know are correct, you were apart of the last generation to ascend from the Well before it burned out." Arcee waited for him to acknowledge yes before moving on, "You don't know peace, not in its long terms anyway."

Bee made a few beeps and clicks, an old habit he did when he was nervous before his voice box was restored, "Well... maybe. It's not like I was born during the Golden Age or anything."

"I'm not gonna lie, it makes me nervous as well."

"What? Why would you be nervous?"

"Peace is what brought a lot of hardships on Cybertron in the first place... or maybe peace is the wrong word..." she rubbed her chin, "Perhaps boredom, and fear is what I'm going for. There was a lot of that, before the Great War started. Peace is what we make it to be, Bee, and it's not all what we expect it to be."

Bumblebee squinted against this thought, "So, you're saying peace can be anything, not just what the stories say."

"Yup, peace is difficult to achieve out here." she stepped into a small circle with her arms out then onto her chest plate where her spark beat rhythmically underneath, "And especially in here. Jack certainly taught me that after I kept trying to drive over a spike ridden road so to speak." She watched Bumblebee look at the ground for answers again, leaning all of his weight to one strut, rubbing the back of his neck.

His thoughts were interrupted when movement on the horizon captured his optics. The great beast king was gliding low, raising the rust to cheer his flight underneath his wings. Not far behind were his lackeys.

"Well there's his Highness." Bumblebee said as they both instinctively went to their knees to lessen their profile against the sky.

"You said he wasn't moping in the bone yard right?"

"Nope, at none of his usual perches either he's gotta be up to something." he signaled for Arcee to follow and they tip toed carefully through the rust so as not to disturb it as much. Arcee sent out a coded signal to their comrades in the area, warning them of the Predacons imminent arrival among the city ruins.

The two warriors hid underneath some rubble and watched the Predacons sniff around the rubble, if they were communicating it was in a sort of language or code neither of them could understand, other than the fact that they were on the hunt for something. Predaking perched atop a sky scraper that wouldn't crumble under his feet, waiting, watching. His bulk caused a massive shadow to dance across the ground. Predaking had recovered wonderfully despite his injuries fighting his zombie brethren. Wings held high, scales shining as if nothing had ever struck. They had been gorging themselves on Energon.

Predaking twitched his tail, making a sound between a snarl and a yelp while shaking his body free of rust dust. The minions below responded with simple grunts as they continued to search.

Bumblebee looked down at Arcee when she touched his arm, she pointed at the remains of a collapsed building. When Bee focused enough, he saw the outline of Wheeljack. He had something in his hands, whatever it was, he was not willing to part with it from how he was crouching.

Unfortunately whatever he was holding let off a scent that sent growls through the air. Darksteel was the first to pounce on the Wrecker, brute strength on his side but wisdom was not.

Wheeljack back stepped swiftly and the rubble Darksteel tried to pummel his way through collapsed on top of the Predacon while Wheeljack remained safe under a roof of steel.

"Dinner is not served today, boys." he chuckled.

Skylynx was next but Bulkhead really want to give him a high five with his wrecking ball in the face, it became a glancing blow as he side stepped just in time.

"Here beastie beastie!" Wheeljack ran along an I beam and tossed a grenade for them to panic over.

Bumblebee glanced up at Predaking but the dragon, while interested in the pursuit, seemed more inclined to just watch.

"Bulkhead what the slag did you find?!" Arcee asked when the bot was close enough.

"Engine part, and I don't mean assembly line, it's from one of the Con ships, we might be able to make another deep space explorer if we can keep it!" the large Autobot blocked another attack and moved.

"You help Wheeljack, I'll help Bulkhead. And keep an optic out for Predaking, this is too quiet for his style!" Bumblebee ordered and Arcee followed without question.

It was like a game of what Jack called, 'hot potato'.

They ran through the maze of abandoned structures with the Predacons hot on their trail, if one got to close to the prize that bot would toss it off to the nearest bot. This infuriated Skylynx and Darksteel to the point that they stopped thinking tactics and simply tried to bully their way to the item. Bumblebee would've thought their rage funny if Predaking wasn't stalking above. The dragon simply hopped from one perch to another to get a better view of the hunt.

"Bee!" Bulkhead through the hot crystal toward his friend when he was busy looking up.

The crystal made a loud pinging sound when it hit Bumblebee's chest, the bot lost his footing then fell backward after tripping over something else, that something else being Arcee as she'd been behind him. They both went crashing into an underground tunnel.

Close behind them came the snapping jaws of Skylynx. He sqawked in frustration and out came flame next. Bumblebee shielded them both from the worst of the blast with his shield.

"Move move move!" he yelled, ushering Arcee through the tunnels. Rock and metal rained on their heads as the monster above them attempted to dig through the mass of cables, tubes and street to get at them.

"Skylynx there is no need to fight! We can share this world! Does your king not realize this!" Bumblebee yelled. He heard the tell tale clicks and whining of grinding gears.

"Predacons do not share." Skylynx cackled. His shadow passed over them, before he reverted back to his beast mode they heard him shout, "Flush them out!" An explosion rocked what was left of the infrastructure around them. The two Autobots barely avoided one of the collapses of cement.

"We need to have a chat with Jackie about hi-." she went silent when Bee held up a digit. It was then that she finally started to listen.

It sounded like high pitched whine combined with the crackle of sparks. It grew louder and louder till the area all around them lit up with bolts of electricity. Bee's shield deflected most of the energy but caused it to absorb it and shut it down. His thoughts raced as fast as their feet took them. Rust slid between the cracks above as whatever was following them moved into a better position.

"Looks like Shockwave is still working on his projects if that's what I think it is." Arcee coughed some bits of debris out of her throat. They heard a frustrated chirping sound and the new Predacon skittered over them again. Bumblebee couldn't see it clearly as it moved too fast, it was small though, smaller than Predaking's minions.

Something somewhere sounded like a pipe had been ripped out, when the shadow returned it was followed by thick liquid dripping through the cracks. Well it started out as drips, then it turned into a torrent as whatever had been holding back the fluid finally gave way completely.

Bumblebee squinted down at the pool starting to form between their feet, "Is that...?"

"Fuel!"

They both jumped just as a ball of light crackled above and came smashing down through the cables. While the full blast didn't reach them, the reach was much farther than flame. It ignited the Autobots will to live as energy and fire seared their armor.

They were not met with more luck as a shadow dropped down an opening in front of them. All they saw was another ball of lightening gathered between the Predacon's jaws and then...

All Bumblebee could remember next were bits and pieces. Shadows of color molded his vision into a twisted dreamscape, that high pitched whine ringing in his audio receptors. He tried to move, tried to get some semblance of what was up, down and sideways. Amidst the silence that had fallen across him like a bomb, he managed to see the beast take off with the ship part before darkness took over his vision.

Some time later, the bot became aware of someone calling his name. He struggled toward the sound but his thoughts were like sludge and it was just so damn noisy still. His vision adjusted and finally he was able to make out Bulkhead standing over him.

"Oh thank the Allspark!" Bulkhead's voice sounded like he was speaking five rooms away. Bumblebee realized they'd been dragged out of the inferno and up to the surface, Wheeljack was off to one side trying to get Arcee to wake up. Bulkhead was saying something but Bee's thoughts were too scattered to focus despite his attempts.

Piecing together what had happened took longer than he would've liked, but the data was collected and processed by the group after they'd gotten back to Iacon.

From Wheeljack and Bulkhead's point of view, the fight had been going swimmingly until they'd tried to escape and Predaking had swooped in, blocking their path with fire, yet that was all he did. No follow ups, no speeches of strength, the monarch simply kept them where he wanted them. The Wreckers had been attacked by something quick and small, it never faced them directly, simply stalked them from the shadows, owning every step it took, dominating every struck it made. It turned out Arcee had taken the brunt of the electric blast although Bee didn't remember her jumping in front of him but from how the markings had traveled across her chassis that's what it seemed like. The femme lay in stasis, tucked away from prying optics while being tended to by First Aid.

Ratchet was on a rampage, so everyone avoided him.

Ultra Magnus didn't help the matter when his first question was what item had they lost, he now had a rather large dent from one of Ratchet's tools the medic had chucked at him.

Bumblebee brooded in the halls of Iacon where Smokescreen was trying to get the archives up and running again; his spark boiling hot although he couldn't quite put on a digit why. The tactics whirled through his mind, militaristically, emotionally, from sheer basic need the Predacons actions weren't making sense. They were highly intelligent animals, that's all they were. Cloned from corpses long since forgotten by anyone on the surface. It did not make sense that they would fight or even experiment with them. Perhaps it had been a proving for their new recruit. Still, that did not answer why they were gathering materials. As smart as even Predaking was, he had not lived long enough to even fathom using machines. Why should he? He hunted.

The wait on Arcee's health was agonizing at first, unbearable when Ratchet lost his cool. Bumblebee avoided his friend when he could help it. First Aid did most of the information swapping. The electrical blast had seized up all of Arcee's mobility cogs, since it tapped their natural metal skin from the inside out as opposed to fire.

"She can eventually move though, right?" Bumblebee asked.

"Of course, it wasn't a full blast." First Aid tapped his old fashioned information cube with a stylus.

"It wasn't... a full blast?" Wheeljack quirked an eye ridge at the smaller bot, "How would you know?"

"Mathematical theory, I could be wrong. Either way her body is recoverable and thanks to our memory core insulation her memories should be in tact, we'll know for certain when she wakes up." First Aid either ignored or didn't notice the ripple of frustration heating up in the room.

"Can we see her?"

"No, Ratchet's orders."

"Slag Ratchet's orders!"

"Ok..." First Aid stepped aside and pointed with his information cube, "Be my guest." the assistance's optics brightened with anticipation, daring them to face the wrath of the CMO.

Bumblebee reached out to Wheeljack, "She's in good hands, Jackie, he fixed my transformation cog I think mobility cogs are within his know how." he back stepped quickly to get out of the fuming Wrecker's way.

"I'll take care of him Bee, you just wait here." Bulkhead sighed, rubbing the back of his neck plate.

"Don't worry about him." Bumblebee shrugged, "There's not a lot wrecking can get done in this situation."

"Yeah, true." the large Autobot slumped a bit before heading out, he paused at the doorway, "Should I tell Jack?"

Bumblebee looked up at nothing, "No, no need to worry our humans for now."

"Right, good call."

Bee watched his friend lumber on out, hoping himself it was a good call.

The yellow mustang fidgeted for what seemed an eternity, really it was one revolution of the planet. While it had no suns, neighboring stars gave Cybertron somewhat of a luminescence during certain parts of the 'day'. Bumblebee felt someone kick his leg, he jumped to his feet, not realizing he'd fallen asleep in the hallway to the makeshift hospital.

Ratchet looked down at him and shoved something in his hands. The young warrior looked to see that it was a cube of Energon.

"Don't starve just because you can't wait for news."

"O-oh... thanks."

The medibot continued to watch Bumblebee. It was then that he realized that this was Ratchet's way of making sure they all took care of themselves. He gulped down half the cube before the old bot seemed satisfied and broke his optic contact.

"She's awake, and will make a full recovery."

"Really?"

"You know the first words out of her mouth were?" Ratchet asked, causing Bee to stiffen, " 'Is Bumblebee alright?' That's what she asked."

The young bot looked down at the floor, "You don't have to point out where I went wrong, Ratchet."

"I didn't say you did anything wrong."

"Well you certainly are implying it!" Bumblebee finally had the courage to glare back at his care taker, "I'm not a sparkling anymore, Ratchet, I know when a debt is due, and when a bot steps too far."

The two glared at each other for a long time, normally it was Ratchet who won these stand offs. This time it was he who's face softened and he stepped down, "I'm... I'm sorry, Bee. Just... too much has happened..."

"I know, I know Ratchet." Bumblebee said, "We're all hurting... just... please don't cause more pain."

The bot didn't respond, words seemed to be dancing just behind his optics but they stumbled when they tried to reach the stage of his mouth.

Bumblebee let the silence hang in the air. Words could only go so far when they were all in pain.

They conversed until a tone of normalcy was restored between them, then Ratchet took Bumblebee to see their friend.


	4. Chapter 4

Memories of the event eluded Arcee. All she remembered clearly was fire, the sense of terror that spurred her toward the crackling light that would've engulfed Bumblebee. All sense of the corporeal world left her as she'd entered stasis. Even when she started fighting for consciousness, all she knew of her body was a painful tingling along her circuits.

Periods of darkness were her only comfort.

When at last the femme came to she found herself on a repair berth, surrounded by pieces of scrap and disgarded tools broken tools. A small mech she didn't recognize was knelt with his back to her picking up the mess. He perked up immediately when she tried to move and was instantly at her side, "Don't move too fast, the patch is still cooling." he touched her arm, the tips of his digits glowing from the contact as he scanned her, "You recover fast." he smiled.

"Th-thanks... where's Bumblebee?" her optics widened with fear for a moment.

"Don't worry he'll be fine, young mech became conscious on the field. Oh, my name is First Aid by the way. I worked as a student in Ratchet's division before the war started." he let go of her and checked her wound. This was the first time that Arcee actually took notice of her frame. A patch covered a quarter of her abdomen where the attack had hit her directly, around the edges she could see where the paint and metal shell had burned black.

"Your body should absorb this metal into its own shell, lucky I still had some on my ship, living metal is hard to come by when you're not running around on Cybertron."

"Great..." she sat up slowly, her joints stiff with pain.

The door hissed open and Ratchet appeared, he walked up to her briskly and seemed about to embrace her but maintained his professionalism. His posture arched with fury and heat radiating off his armor.

"Arcee... I'm... I'm glad you're alright."

"You got the best hands in the business, Doc, I didn't doubt I would wake back up." Arcee smiled sweetly which only seemed to make Ratchet more agitated.

"I'm going to need to ask you a few questions, just as a test on long and short term memory." Ratchet straightened up, "What age were you born in?"

"The Golden Age, shortly before the Quints showed up."

"Good, and what mission do you remember last?"

Arcee leaned back, taking the cube of energon that First Aid offered her, "We left Iacon to find some circuit boards you requested, but instead just ended up driving around to let off some steam." she sipped her drink, tiny sparkles touching the surface, "During the fight Bee and I got cornered in some ruins... and a new Predacon showed up. Then a lot happened in just a few short seconds."

"Do you remember what this new beast looked like?" Ratchet insisted.

She lifted her optics, as if trying to read the door for answers, "No, it was too fast. It was smart too. I just remember its weapon was a lot more deadly than Skylynx and Darkwing's. It was all light and power, no dancing with pyromantics." she played her words, "It was small." she added quickly, "Its size was slightly bigger than me in vehicle mode."

"Fascinating, such a small form to pack such a punch." First Aid mused, "It must burn through energy so fast it has be smart with its bursts."

"They're all animals, they're not even birthed naturally." Ratchet grumbled.

"Natural or not, that new one kicked our afts Ratchet." Arcee swing her feet over the side of her berth despite the doctors protests, "This puts a new priority on finding Predaking and Shockwave. He allowed us to be used as test prey for this new Predacon, what if this sort of 'proving' continues?"

"You, will rest for now." Ratchet said firmly, "I will bring the matter to Ultra Magnus and the others." he signaled for First Aid to remain.

The bot sighed heavily at the CMO's exit, "He's only become more edgy over the millenias." he rubbed the edge of his helm.

"Can you blame him?"

The medibot chuckled coldly.

With the incoming of refugees very close at hand, Team Prime agreed that this pest problem needed to be taken care of. Wheeljack suggested just wiping them off the face of existence but Bumblebee argued that they couldn't be so sparkless, Predaking could be reasoned with.

"It's not Predaking I'm worried about, it's Shockwave! You know what he's capable of, you remember the stories of the Dinobots." Wheeljack countered.

"Yes but to find Shockwave, we'll need Predaking's assistance won't we? His variant of our species is on the verge of returning do you think he would give up the very thing bringing them back?"

"They are not the same species."

Bumblebee shuffled his feet, placing his hands on his hips, "We're not here to argue about that, we're here to discuss the next step and frankly, destroying the link to Shockwave isn't going to help."

"We could always capture one of his subordinates and get the answers out of them?" Bulkhead suggested.

"Frankly, Bulkhead their fear of Predaking outweighs their fear of us." said Knock Out, he was busy examining the tiny scratches on his hands from all the repairs he'd been doing on the workers.

"Plus that's borderline torture, Bulk, out of the question." Bumblebee looked at Arcee who was nearly fully recovered, "Thoughts?"

"Is there nothing about the different Predacons in the archives?"

Bee shook his head, "Smokescreen said he hasn't found a thing, even went as far as repairing Teletraan-1 to find the information."

"Then we do this the old fashioned way." Arcee gestured to Bee, "We hunt them down, hopefully talk Predaking into telling us what exactly is going on."

"He only respects brute strength though." Ultra Magnus unconsciously gripped his hooked hand, "How would you get an answer out of him, Bumblebee."

"We've already proven our strength and wit over him as a group, we just need to find him." the short bot said with affirmation. He wished he felt as confident as he sounded.

Wheeljack dropped the empty casing of energon he'd been nursing on the floor, "Hmph, fine, we talk. I'll go help Smokescreen get the rest of Teletraan-1 up and maybe the scanners can pick up the stupid things."

It took longer than the party cared for the repairs to happen. Everything they tried to fix just seemed to break in five other places but their perseverance paid off and Teletraan-1 became fully operational in certain areas of the planet. Some scan nodes simply had to be physically found and replaced. However it did manage to gather very recent movement in the previous bone yard of the Predacons.

Team Prime set out in full force despite Bumblebee's suggestion that they approach in a small group. Ultra Magnus did not seem keen on leaving anything to chance.

The bone yard was empty when they arrived, almost all of its residents having picked themselves up at Unicron's bidding. What bones were left on the surface were poisoned and seemed unwanted by Shockwave and the Predacons.

This particular area of Cybertron had been mined empty of energon in a past age and left for bandits to scavenge. Now it bubbled with potential as the massive canyons dug by miners were slowly filling with the planets life blood. Rich crystals were forming every layer the energy rose, adding a wild beauty forgotten by current generations of Cybertronians.

Smokescreen checked his holographic map of the area he'd copied from Iacon's archives. He'd been spending more time there than he cared to have done but until more chroniclers showed up to help he was the star of the show for Iacon's history.

"This is the last area Teletraan-1 sensed any sky movement, could've been Megatron passing through for all we know."

"One issue at a time, Smokes." Arcee cautioned as she peered over his shoulder, "Looks like it was... that mining shaft over there."

"Be cautious, these old mines are extremely unstable... most of it is probably blocked off with the energon flow." Ultra Magnus warned.

Evenly spaced out, the team carefully descended into the old cave system carved out by centuries of labor. They opted for the more sturdy natural paths as opposed to the crumbling catwalks sitting precariously at the edges. Eventually they found an elevator that still seemed to be functional and safe.

"I'll go first." Bumblebee volunteered.

"I'll go with you."

"No."

Arcee stopped in midstep, "S'cuse me?"

He quickly glanced away, "I mean... it should be only me, large groups might spook them." he felt even worse when she smiled.

"They faced a flock of Terrorcons I think two Autobots won't startle them, besides, I have to stay ahead in the score system."

"Score... system?" Bee said as he followed her onto the platform.

"Yeah, I have to make sure you stay safe first."

Bee felt his spark flip flop with guilt, but at the same time he was happy that she had her usual vigor. Eventually the group made it to the bottom safe and started to see more obvious signs of Predacons. Freshly destroyed machines, dug up pits of softer metal.

Bulkhead knelt by one of the smaller pits, it could still fit his large aft quite easily, "What do you think they're looking for exactly?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Knock Out said.

"If it was obvious I wouldn't be asking."

"Listen ya big lug, they've been looking for mass production parts, when I was working with Shockwave on the project we had to do everything by hand. Prefer working with parts rather than CNA it's so slaggin' tedious I'm not sure how he enjoyed it. However we were close to getting a... a rhythm down if that makes sense."

"Meaning?"

"We were close to automating the system. It's what Megatron wanted, an army of Predacons."

With that information hanging heavy in the air, the bots continued their journey.

The paths became less groomed as they went, collapsed tunnels and flooded areas made it a bit easier to follow the trail the Predacons left. They didn't seem very intent on putting anymore effort in digging than they were.

At last they started to hear scufflings and growls bouncing off the walls. Arcee insisted she go first since she was the smallest, she could hide the easiest. Bumblebee handed off the Polarity Gauntlet to her, just to put his mind at ease. He would follow next at her signal.

Slipping easily through the ruble, Arcee tip toed her way through the energon crystals that were growing at the bottom of this particular cave. She finally peeked out from between a wall and a toppled mining vehicle to see Darksteel rummaging around in the rocks. He picked up a piece, threw that one away, but set aside another. They must be looking for viable bones again.

The day only became more of a gold mine when Arcee spotted Shockwave's shadow as he walked up to the Predacon. The old scientist looked puny kneeling next to the beast but his posture didn't reveal any fear. Arcee turned to the group hiding at the end of the hall and made a circle around her face and gave a thumbs up, then pointed at her eyes and signed for two enemies ahead. Bumblebee, Knock Out and Smokescreen were the first to begin their approach, the larger bots staying behind.

Arcee turned back to watching the two entities. Normally only seeing Darksteel trying to chew their limbs off or blasting fire, it was odd to see the beast in biped mode, even speaking intelligently with Shockwave even though he asked simple questions. Normally the Ursagryph was cracking sarcastic jokes and laughing hysterically, it was a moment of calm for him.

Smokescreen activated his Phase Shifter and slipped through the floor and through the walls hoping to get a better view of what was around the corner. When he came back to Arcee and Bee he signaled that three Predacons were present. Except that they were the usual Preds, no new faces. He went to glance over his shoulder and then yelled in surprise when he saw nothing but Darksteel's madly grinning face in his.

"Well well!" Darksteel howled as he knocked over their cover sending metal filings everywhere, "We have visitors!"

"Wait wait wait!" Bumblebee held up his arms, "We're not here to fight!" a large shadow sat up against the far wall where Shockwave had vanished from sight, the shadow could only belong to the king himself.

"Let them approach, Darksteel." Predaking ordered.

Bumblebee made what he hoped was a subtle gesture to Ultra Magnus to remain behind since they hadn't been noticed yet. The three bots stepped forward, Smokescreen stepping away from Darksteel when the predator sneered at him.

The cavern they'd dug into reminded them of the naturally formed caves of earth, energon and metal had melted, formed, melted again and reformed creating geometric glowing structures. This was an extremely rare find for a historian as the time when Cybertron's star exploded had all been wiped out by the Patterner's construction. However the present was more pressing. Bee's optics darted around the room but Shockwave was nowhere to be seen, he must've ducked out in another tunnel.

Predaking stood on a wide stalagmite that he'd knocked the spiked top off of, he looked down at the Autobots, optics locking on Bumblebee.

"And what does the great nation of Iacon wish with us lowly Predacons." he growled. Knowing the whispers of their existence from the work forces he'd stalked.

"We're not a nation yet, just a place to live." Bee responded.

"So says the Prince." Predaking signaled for his minions to be at his side and they obeyed. Being called a Prince caused Bumblebee to arch an eye ridge in confusion but he focused on the questions at hand.

"We're just here to ensure that peace continues between our races, we've had more than enough conflict and more war is the last thing we wish."

"Agreed."

The Autobots glanced at each other.

Arcee stepped forward, "Then what's with all the attacks recently, you've been killing our workers and harassing the warrior class where ever possible."

"Our rejuvenator needs materials to reinstate our echo system, is that such a wrong thing to fight for?" Predaking asked.

The thought of more Predacons did not appeal to Bumblebee but that was not his choice to make, why should he deny them a chance at revival, "Violence is not necessary to achieve your goal, we can work together to revive your race so long as you wish to live along side each other."

"That sounds a bit crowded." Predaking hissed quietly.

"This is how nations rise, Predaking!"

"From what history I've seen doing nothing but helping everyone rise up, causes the nation to fall from too much excess weight." his growl could be felt through the floor.

"Predaking you don't want Shockwave to keep recreating you he's got more than a few bolts and nuts loose!" Smokescreen exclaimed.

"I can attest to that." Knock out added, "I've been his apprentice since I came out of the Allspark." The red sports car couldn't help but take a few steps back when the dragon looked his way. He would've much rather been dealing with whiney workers than with a bunch of fire breathers in a cave.

Predaking's gaze returned to Bee, "What say you Prince, would you be willing to forgive Shockwave of his sins so that he may continue his work in reviving us."

The warrior kept his engine from hiccuping. Why was everyone looking at him for answers?! This was Ultra Magnus' thing not his! Was it because he was it his color scheme that commanded respect or something?

Bumblebee shuffled his feet and looked at the ground for a moment, "Ughhmm. " what would Optimus say? Bumblebee's mind flew through his memories of the Prime as Predaking seemed to be irritated with his hesitation, "His sins are deep and painful to our people, my liege, that is not a decision I can make on my own." The Predacons all seemed to grow taller as they swelled with anger.

Before Predaking could respond however they all scattered when a nearby wall collapsed and Wheeljack went rolling across the floor with Shockwave clawing for freedom.

"And you call us the animals!" Predaking snarled, scales bristling with rage, "Is it such a sin that we wish to be brought back from the dark!"

"Wheeljack! Stop!" Bumblebee called but the Wrecker didn't hear him. While Shockwave preferred to remain off the field he did not forget how to do battle. Already Wheeljack was bleeding heavily form a rupture in his side panels but he was shrugging off the pain.

"Let this be a proving ground!" Predaking transformed into his beast mode and roared, causing the chamber to rumble and the bots to lose their footing. The dragon snorted smoke but did not move from his perch, neither did his minions.

As you must stand together you must be able to stand alone. Predaking thought, flaring his wings wide. It was something he'd learned the hard way in his short time conscious of his own mind. He'd spent a lot of time in recovery thinking over all that had happened and had been said in his life, trying to make sense of it through his animalistic programing. He stomped his feet and roared one more time. We will not be swept aside like rodents in the dark!

The shadow returned to the battle field.

At first it smashed into Wheeljack, clinging to the mech's back and shredding his armor and ripping one doorwing off. The Wrecker yowled in surprise and pain, releasing Shockwave and rolling, trying to rid himself of the Predacon.

The beast didn't seem like it intended to stay along for the ride so jumped off, putting himself between the wounded Shockwave and the Autobots. Now they got a full view of the Predacon, he was small and sleek, built for speed. The design was feline by nature, colors gold and black, a mixture of spots and stripes all across his back.

"Jackie!"

"No!" Bumblebee yelled but no one would heed him now, the damage had been done. Ultra Magnus' group had went around hoping to find a way into the chamber and had ran smack into Shockwave. Not knowing the context of the meeting this had just turned into a disaster.

Ultra Magnus whipped out his canon and aimed for the small Predacon but the cat held his ground till he saw the tip glow with intent and he sprinted away. The cat snarled viciously, energon dripping from his jaws as he snapped at Wheeljack whom Smokescreen was trying to get back on his feet to evacuate him. The bot phased both of them and the beast leaped through them, skidding to a halt on the other side. He yipped in confusion for only a moment before his mind was back on the hunt. Blaster fire was being shot off sporadically, a stray blast smacked Skylynx in the face, although he growled he held his ground next to his king.

A high pitched crackling noise caused Bumblebee to dive for cover as a small sphere of lightening formed in the cats mouth. He released it toward Ultra Magnus who'd tried to go Shockwave. The huge mech felt the tingling of the blast as it skidded just past his thick shell. Lightening bolts and sparks showering across the wall just behind the mech in an cackling shriek.

Arcee dodged Bulkhead as he was knocked over by a swooping attack by Darksteel, who otherwise remained out of the fight. The objective was clear to the Wreckers: get to Shockwave.

The Decepticon was trying to get to his feet but Wheeljack had returned all favors in damage. The only reason he wasn't within the Autobot's grasp was because of the new Predacon. The cat practically skipped across the cave floor cheerfully avoiding all of their attempts to destroy him.

Arcee sprinted forward when the cat was focused on Knock Out and leaped. Knocking them both over in a confused tumble of claws and blades. They both regained their feet at the same time, smaller sizes and weights compared to the hulking vehicles around them allowing for such agility.

The Predacon shook his surprise off and faced Arcee, scales bristling and teeth bared. Arcee responded with a battle stance of her own and all of her blades visible. She did not flinch when he stomped both front feet and snarled at her, "Come on runt... you don't scare me." she growled back.

His yellow optics revealed amusement.

By this time the other Predacons had joined the fray, Predaking scooping Shockwave up and flying to a high cliff above.

Bumblebee couldn't focus on what he was shooting. He'd never felt so clumsy with worry in his short life. Even when Unicron shook the foundations of Earth he'd kept a positive aura. He worried about his decisions, choice of words, Arcee's safety as she exchanged blows with the lightening breather. Whether or not this was an extension of the Great War itself.

"Bee watch out!" Bulkhead grabbed his friend just before he was body slammed by Skylynx.

Arcee had not face someone with speed like herself in such a long time it felt quite unreal. When she fought with anyone else it was like they were moving in slow motion, now her engine actually choked on heat trying to keep up with her demands. Her foot slipped on some bone fragments which sent her crashing down a small ledge and the cat didn't waste any time pinning her to the floor.

She yelled as his teeth came close to her head but instead of biting down he snapped his mouth closed, leaning his head close to hers. With him stretched over her their necks touched for just a moment. Arcee was confused as to what he was trying to accomplish with such an intimate gesture.

Not willing to find out, the femme kicked out her feet which were the only limbs free of his paws. They managed to connect his his hind legs ruining his angle and she quickly followed up with a cut to his shoulder spilling energon over both of them. He jumped off of her and with a burst of speed practically flew across some boulders almost up to where Predaking was. He turned back and looked at her, tail twitching and his neck stretched strangely.

Arcee squinted her optics at him, wondering what he was trying to say, "Just transform you piece of scrap!"

His response to this was him clapping his teeth together and spreading his maw wide with another sphere of lightening, hints of sparks flexing all across his body as he drew the power up into his throat.

"Arcee!" Smokescreen grabbed the femme and dropped them both through the floor as the cavern erupted in lightening and flame. The howls of the Predacons echoed through even the walls as he brought her across the chamber where the others had hunkered down.

"It's time to retreat." Ultra Magnus ordered, "They're bringing this cave down!"

Arcee skidded to a stop and yanked on Bumblebee's wrist, "Bee! Snap out of it!" the mech looked at her then suddenly remembered where they were and obeyed.

Darksteel and Skylynx followed the Autobots snapping at their heels, but only as far as when the mineshaft began. The cat however drove the point home by chasing them all the way to the elevator, mouth full of a lightening sphere just waiting to be released. The Predacon had earned fear from them and knew it on a very smug level. Bumblebee handed Wheeljack off to Bulkhead and Knock Out before glancing back down the tunnel, this time he caught Arcee staring back at the Predacon who was eyeing her with his head turned, as if he was favoring one optic over the other.

The femme did not linger in the stare off, the cat knew it had won and even went as far as sitting on his hunches and curling his long tail around his feet till the Autobots were completely out of sight. He promptly swallowed his sphere back down into his power cells.

As the lift put space between them and their humiliation, Bumblebee felt a heat rise in his spark. He picked himself up, stamping over to Ultra Magnus, "You should've waited!"

"Easy, soldier - ."

"Don't!" Bumblebee growled, "Don't dull me into nothing but a soldier Ultra Magnus! I know that's how you function but I have no patience for it now!" His doorwings twitched, "Predaking was willing to talk! We were talking! Then you go and seek out the one thing he cares about most right now!" None of them had ever seen Bumblebee angry before, it stirred despair in them.

"They are a militaristic threat to our new colony, Bumblebee, you can't treat them otherwise they won't accept anything other than brute force in their world." Ultra Magnus did not fall back on his decision.

"They are no more a threat than the bots who decided to not be apart of the city! You are just scared of them, all of you scared." he gestured to them. Bumblebee wanted to throw more words at Ultra Magnus but a soft touch on his arm made him look down at Arcee. The blue Autobot had a soft look in her optics. It suddenly made Bee remember the times he'd seen anger and vengeance that had removed all semblance of morals and patience.

Still fidgeting with frustration, Bumblebee turned his back on Ultra Magnus and walked away. The leader of the Wreckers did the same.

"Do you think peace will ever be the same?" Bulkhead asked suddenly to the group that was left.

"I'd like to wonder if peace ever did exist, or if something like the Golden Age was just a toddler stage of our species." Knock Out grunted as energon dripped all over his chassis, his patch of Wheeljack was complete but the bot was unconscious from the blood loss.

Bulkhead glanced at Arcee, "We were only doing what we thought was right... right?"

"Yes, yes you were, Bulk." she rubbed her arms then realized she was still covered in the cat's energon, she stretched out her hand to look at the liquid. It shimmered the same as when it flowed through them, "But so was Bumblebee."

Suddenly the age of rejuvenation seemed more like the age of chaos. They had no leader to rally behind and no guidance on where to go next. The fear of their once heavily bureaucratic counsel matched the terror of Megatron's tyranny. Fighting for freedom had seemed so simple at first, but now she questioned what exact freedom they were striving for.

**I appreciate all of you that are favoriting my story! :) Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Especially since I feel like my writing has become very rusty over the years. Cheers everyone! **


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for all your support and favorites! Makes me very warm and fuzzy! Just a short chapter, couldn't figure out how to connect certain events so... blargh! :)**

It wasn't that Bumblebee never got sad, depressed, angry or frustrated. He felt all those despite always being a positive force for the team. He was angry because he felt like every decision he made was either met with resistance or ignored completely.

The muscle car roared down one of the outer bridges of Iacon, transformed to slide down a collapsed section then reverted back to his wheeled form to continue his flight across the concrete. It didn't make sense, his opinions never used to be so fully valued nor fully ignored, they had simply been there for others to take them up as the situation needed.

Rubber filled the air with screeching as Bee did a very harsh one eighty and transformed again, a poor rock was sent careening down to the third level of road as he kicked it out of his way. He watched it clatter against a boulder, then some piping and finally settled on the remains of some poor spark long since dead. The young warrior stared at the casualty, he tilted his head and squinted. The emblem that would've been branded on the bot's chest plate was unrecognizable from this distance. Then again, Bee supposed they all looked the same when they died.

Another shower of small rocks bounced into the abyss as Bee left the edge of the road kicking more debris around.

The Allspark's light still burned brightly along the horizon, occasionally waves of rainbow embalmed sparks would actually erupt into an upside down tornado above the well but then they would spiral back down into the Well. Ratchet had said this phenomenon hadn't happened during his time alive, perhaps it was a prehistoric event that occurred when the Well first ignited with life. Bumblebee chose a spot on top of a half blasted building to sit and just watch the lights dance. He recalled Ratchet and First Aid going over some initial scanning of the Well simply to ensure its health and productivity was returning. The doctor had said as far as he could tell the energon wasn't at optimum levels yet but the flow was steadily growing. To do anymore of an in depth information sweep he would need someone like Perceptor around, one of the first Patterners.

Auroras lit the sky as the Well fluxed in power, sparks dancing in circles all the way up before flying back down. Bee wasn't sure how long he watched the waves of energy reach out of the wounded planet, and frankly he didn't care. By the time he realized he'd received messages from Iacon his anger had fizzled away into a very tired emptiness. The notion of facing Ultra Magnus again did not sit well in his tank. They were supposed to be a team, they were supposed to be helping Cybertron move forward from the Great War not stall in it. Arcee's words about bots not remembering or even knowing what peace was drifted across his processor. His face suddenly hardened.

He'd seen peace, he knew what it was supposed to be. If the humans could find peace among their major scraps and wars then they were perfectly capable of doing the same thing. Bee wondered what Rafael was doing at this moment... probably starting the next phase of his schooling. The little runt was far too smart to even be in high school but he constantly insisted he wanted to stay, saying that university was too scary. Bumblebee chuckled at the thought, Raf was willing to face a Decepticon ten times his size for his friends but he wasn't brave enough to go to a higher learning facility. Perhaps all Cybertron's priorities were all wrong?

Bumblebee continued his wander across the broken landscape. Eventually his thoughts cooled down to wondering what a completed Cybertron looked like. Having been born in the very last generation of sparks before the Well turned dark, Bumblebee had no memories of its glittering glory.

The small figure stopped amidst the free standing walls when he recognized one of the buildings, or what was left of its crest. Ratchet had shown him a holovid of the complete design, it used to house grand pieces of Cybertronian art. Curiosity entranced his mind as he crawled through a few small holes to get inside what would've been the main gallery floor.

Much to his dismay but with no shock, not much was left from the Golden and Rust Age, he found pieces of what looked like some sort of four dimensional construction of the galaxy, at least that's what he thought that was it. It had been made of multicolored metals encrusted with crystals. When Bee shined his headlights on the remnants, the crystals glowed, they were probably left over energon.

A smile crept across his face, he couldn't fathom doing anything like this, his best artistic moves were copying the robot dance moves back on Earth. He hoped someday that artists would return and decorate Cybertron with their brilliance.

Bumblebee continued his walk around the gallery until even the Predacons were lost in the back of his mind. The smile never left his face as he knelt here and there, trying to figure out what had been what. It was like a fun guessing game just for him to play.

Eventually the real world called Bumblebee back.

For the most part the days were spent scavenging and keeping the locals from scrapping each other. It was only when the Predacons showed up did everyone stop huffing and puffing at one another. They'd thought the beast bots were hunting before their incident in the mine, now they showed no intention of holding back whenever they did cross paths. This simply furthered Ultra Magnus' argument that they had to be eliminated entirely. Bumblebee simply wasn't good enough at arguing his point convincingly. Despite having the use of his voice back he suddenly felt more useless than before, always stumbling over his words or fighting to reveal what he was feeling was right.

Bee simply grew silent to the point that he just tried to keep everyone safe, using his words only to get an idea across.

Everyone was busy trying to rebuild their lives.

It was after a rather heated discussion about the Predacons again that Bee finally lost his patience with Ultra Magnus' bull headedness. He stormed out of the meeting room and didn't look back.

"Wait up!"

He slowed a half step for Arcee to catch up, "I really don't want company right now, Arcee."

"Actually I think you do."

He stopped and looked down at the femme who shrugged and kept walking, "For someone who doesn't talk much your silence has been the loudest."

"What?" It was Bumblebee's turn to catch up.

"Ever since you started arguing with Ultra Magnus a few months ago you've been a worse hermit than Raf after he's been bullied at school. Come on let's go for a drive."

This they did, a lot of the roads directly circling Iacon were in a usable state now, this meant good long runs of pure engine surge. They stopped to cool off when the Well's glow was in sight. Arcee planted herself on the edge of the road and dropped an energon cube in Bee's hand.

"Everyone is worried about you, Bee." she said after a few minutes of sipping energy.

"Really? Cuz they all seemed to be avoiding me."

She chuckled, "No, you are avoiding them, and they don't know how to handle a furious Bumblebee."

"Me? Furious? I'm not furious!"

"Oh please, your face turns red hot every time you try and 'discuss' things with the metal head." Arcee quoted with her digits.

"It does?" he looked down at his knees, "Am I really that angry looking?"

"You're not good at hiding it as I am, Bee, anger just doesn't suit your style." she smiled coldly.

He rolled his optics, "Ok maybe I'm a little angry, but don't you see what Magnus is trying to steer us towards? Utter chaos!"

"Your reason isn't wrong, but you also gotta see it from his point of view."

"And what's his point of view? Huh? Drag us into another war?"

"It's only a war if there's more than four of them." she held up her hand for him to wait to comment, "He's also stuck in an old way of thinking, Bee. Fighting has brought him results in life, even when he brought the Wreckers down to their knees that took force because that's all the bullies knew."

"You're saying Jackie and Bulk were bullies?"

"Maybe not so much Bulkhead. Doesn't matter. My point is Bee, he's using methods that he knows work quickly and effectively, you didn't read about him using speeches to win sparks, Optimus did that." she swirled the last quarter of her drink around, watching the river of energon flow between the buildings nearby.

Bee pursed his lip plates together, staring this time into his hardly touched cube, "Just, sometimes I wish he would just lay off for a moment."

"Do you honestly think that's in his nature?"

"You're right that's a stupid idea."

They both laughed.

"Are you scared?"

This question made Bee's helmet flaps and door wings perk up a little faster than he meant to show, "W-what do you mean?"

The cool light from the river revealed how many scars the femme had wracked across her shell. While she'd taken time to clean them up recently, most were simply too deep to ever truly go away. Surprising what shadows could reveal.

She straightened up and looked at him directly, "You haven't spoken much in your entire life, and when you do it's to challenge one of our elders. Are you angry because you're scared of losing this fight? Scared of what might happen if your ideas fail?" she watched him carefully, seeing the light pulse in his optics and a small whine of fans click underneath some armored plating.

Bumblebee cleared the pain from his throat, "Maybe a little, I'm not used to all this attention."

"It's ok, the art of conversing is not an easy one to learn. Most bots just want to... crack helmets open."

"Huh... kind of like Ultra Crankface." his thoughtful expression suddenly broke wide with a smile, even Arcee snorted at the terrible attempt at a pun.

"This is a new kind of battle for you Bumblebee, and trust me when I say you have more support than you think." she held up her cube, and he clinked his against it.


	6. Chapter 6

Refugees continued to arrive by ship only since the space bridges were still badly damaged. Ratchet was hoping that techs would arrive with the groups of Cybertronians but so far he was not that lucky. Everything had to be figured out from scratch, at this point he was used to it. He'd gotten the ground bridge working with scrap parts from Earth he could eventually figure out the giant space bridges of their home planet.

In the mean time the hunt for Shockwave and his Predacons turned from a cautious ember to a raging flame. They would occasionally ran across rejected specimens, twisted pieces of incomplete CNA clusters that had no more a brain than the stones they crushed under their feet.

Since the grounded feline had joined their ranks, Skylynx and Darksteel had gotten into the habit of dropping the rejects (if they had any) down onto the battle field just to add a bit of 'fun' to the battle. Letting the cat do most of the dirty work. Word of the lightning wielding beast had spread very fast, workers were nervous to go out scavenging.

The next group to escort the workers beyond the walls were gathered in the main hall of Iacon's library. It had been converted into a rough sort of headquarters until a better suited place was erected. Smokescreen had finally found and also trained a few data loggers that had worked in the library, they'd all set about restoring what they could since all of Cybertron's history was held in the memory core of the city. He still didn't care for clerk work, but he did have an appreciation for what was important to everyone.

Bumblebee trudged into the HQ with an arm full of fresh parts for some of the computers they had running, Teletraan-1 had gotten a point where most of its systems could could self repair, but some parts just needed to be replaced manually. He stepped to the side when Ultra Magnus and a small group of soldiers exited at a brisk pace.

"Where are they headed in such a hurry?" he asked no one in particular.

"There was chatter over the public comms about seeing a Predacon in Zed sector." Smokescreen said.

"Always quick to gun point." Bee responded as he handed off his load to the tech who offered to take it.

"Yeah eventually it'll blow up in his nice shiney face and you can say I told ya so." Smoke chuckled.

"I'd rather it not get to that point." the yellow and black bot rubbed the back of his neck. He noticed at the end of the hall Arcee stood alone, fiddling with a hologram and occasionally muttering something to Teletraan-1.

She looked up briefly at his approach, "Hey." she continued to turn the hologram around.

"What's that?"

"It used to be something used for entertainment, it takes a snapshot of a memory and allows you to share it with other bots." she swiped away what she was working on and made a pulling motion from her head. Her optics flared briefly and she 'pushed' the snapshot onto the machine which revealed a three dimensional image of Bumblebee playing chess with Raphael, "See?"

"Wow... that's cool!" Bumblebee grinned.

"I was surprised to find one in this good of condition so I fixed it up with Ratchet's help."

"What are you trying to do with it? Make a photo album for the humans?"

The femme chuckled, "No but that's not a bad idea." she pulled the image back, "I was studying this guy."

The image was extremely blurry but Bee could tell it was the feline Predacon.

"Ah... Mister Shocks-A-Lot." Bumblebee snorted, "What are you trying to figure out, it's not like its a mystery who and what he is."

"Isn't it?" she selected the beasts' head and pointed to a color that didn't seem to match the rest of his form, "In the past half a meta-cycle in each encounter we've had with this cat he's not spoken a single word or even transformed."

"So? Maybe he just prefers it that way."

"No Bee don't you see?" she pointed again, "He's wearing a collar."

Bumblebee squinted and leaned closer to the snap shot, "Lightening has always been a difficult thing even to us to cultivate." he pointed out the symbol on the cats hind leg, "Ok now that I'm not running for my life, his signet doesn't even look like Predaking's. A different gene pool for Predacon's?"

"Possible... I feel like the only way we'll know is if we can get him to talk."

"Pardon my eves dropping guys but... how are you going to get something that's trying to kill you to talk?" Smokescreen asked from across the room.

"I could get Starscream to monologue... maybe I can get this one to chat." Bumblebee's doorwings quivered with barely controlled laughter.

"Anyone could get Screamy to monologue... stupid Con loved to hear himself yap." Arcee snorted, "We'll have to get the collar off of him."

"This begs the similar question of... how?"

"Give him a koala hug?"

Arcee and Bumblebee stared at their friend.

"What?"

"The term is 'bear hug'."

"How is that any different?"

Arcee huffed, "Never mind. Teletraan-1 was able to provide me with a lot of data on kitty's attack patterns and estimates on how much punch he's actually got behind those teeth." she shut down the snapshot machine and pulled up an actual file from the public computer, "He doesn't just spit it out he can draw from the power cells and that's why he moves as fast as he does." she frowned. Bumblebee would've thought he saw a tad bit of broken pride in her, but she was very good at keeping most things in check.

"We'll have to equalize the playing field, fight him in a place where he has no choice but to withhold his breath weapon so he's not zapped as well."

"Wait wait you're saying jump into a pool of highly conductive liquid... with an electric monster?" Smokescreen exclaimed.

"Yup."

"Well aren't you brave."

"Got any other ideas to take down a Predacon that's already highly resistant to all forms of shock?"

Smokescreen seemed about to say something, then just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Gonna have to lure him away from his buddies to make this a feasible fight."

With data beginning to stream in as the global network further repaired itself, it suddenly became very easy to determine where the Predacons were flying. Ground sensors were spotty at best, but with enough spots they were able to determine where the feline patrolled solo for a short time during the day. Surprisingly the cat prowled around close to Iacon and its work areas.

They grabbed Bulkhead on the way out of the city who'd just finished getting patched up by Ratchet, who seemed to be grumbling about one too many things.

"I thought the Doc being home would make him less grumpy... but now he grumps more than ever." Bulkhead grunted as he tested out the new armored plating in his elbow.

"I think on Earth it was easier to not remember all the damage we've caused Cybertron." Arcee said as she walked, adjusting the Polarity Gauntlet so it would attach to her wrist.

"I guess... still he doesn't need to take it out on us." Bulkhead grumbled, "So we're off on a hunt huh?"

"Yup, gonna bring the fight to the Preds for once." she replied.

"I imagine turbocat won't be as fun to hunt as turbofoxes." the gentle giant grumbled again as he rolled his shoulder joints, obvious places where the cat had nearly torn off his armor visible when he moved.

"Wait you hunted?"

"I didn't hunt... I did target practice."

Arcee insisted on going alone, having Bumblebee and the rest take care of the technical part of the battle while she did the stalking. The bigger bots could knock the Pred out senseless if they could only manage to land a hit on any small bot, but since they were aiming for more precision she insisted it be her to do the luring.

Carefully she skidded down loose boulders and weaved through old homes, trying to be as silent as the ghosts that ambled around in search for the Allspark's Well. A hot breeze kicked up the layers of dust and made static snap across the metallic road. Arcee glanced at her scanner but it was inconclusive so she just dropped back to searching the old fashioned way. It wasn't uncommon for one to use jamming devices, perhaps being as electrifying as he was he just had a natural aura.

"Arcee, do a one-eighty and keep true." the soft voice was Smokescreen over a secure comm, the bot must've gotten to a high vantage point.

She followed his instructions and eventually came across a trail of energon. A chill shook her joints when she realized something badly injured had been dragged kicking and screaming through the old valley, at one point she could see where the bot had grabbed a hold of a ledge in desperation. The femme started to question whether or not she wanted to go through with her own idea. The way the Predacons fed was simply barbaric.

Well... since he's obviously hunting us down here it's a good thing we're returning the favor. She thought.

The femme stepped carefully along the energon remains until she came to a large open space that had once been a crossroads. At the center laying on top of a pile of rubble was the feline, breathing hard and his face all the way up to his audio receptors plastered with energon. Whoever he'd dragged through the area had been dumped into the tunnels below.

He slowly lifted his optics to hers and acknowledged. The Predacon got to his feet with care, licking a bit of energon off his noseplate without breaking contact with her. Arcee swallowed her disgust and lowered herself into a stance. He stopped, the end of his tail twitching.

Arcee squinted and tilted her head as he turned himself slightly to show his side. For someone potentially under Shockwave's utter control, he seemed oddly aware of what she was looking for. Since he wasn't moving for the kill, she could see clearly now that it was indeed a collar wrapped tightly around his neck, knowing the mad scientist well enough, it probably had spikes lodged into his nervous system to monitor things.

"Here kitty kitty." Arcee chirped.

A low growl came from his throat.

The ground suddenly jerked causing the cat to jump back, spines raising along his back and tail. Somewhere Smokescreen had found a node to control how that part of the city and now he was making the arena Arcee had asked for.

The Predacon turned to run but was smacked back into the pit by Bumblebee who'd shadowed Arcee's path.

She saw the sphere form before the cat hit the ground, "Nope!" The air around them whined with strain as she threw her fist forward with the gauntlet, snatched the Predacon up and threw him in a circle. He coughed up the sphere into a harmless blast of sparks after he hit the newly forming wall.

Quick to realize the trap he attempted to pull all of his power into a leaping run before it got too high but Arcee yanked with the polarity gauntlet again but misjudged the power needed causing them both to get dragged across the ground toward each other. He flipped to meet her with all claws and teeth. A well placed shot from Bumblebee broke up the slight panic. Liquid rushed through open grates and created a shallow layer that went just above the two small bots ankles.

The cat made a high pitched sound when he surveyed his new surroundings that said: Well slag, ya got me. He swallowed a small sphere of energy from his power cells and charged straight for Arcee who deflected him only just in time. He came at her with such speed that he managed to get his teeth around the gauntlet and her arm.

"Arcee!" Bumblebee cried out as the two went rolling over each other in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

The femme twisted around the beast and with a heel blade scraped him deep along one leg, earning her a yelp of pain from the Pred and her freedom. Unfortunately in the scramble to get away from each other the gauntlet had been lost in the spray of foam under their feet. She tapped her own burst of power to body check the cat trying to keep his poise challenged.

In the flurry of movement Arcee reached around his neck and clamped on tightly. His high pitched roar of frustration rattled her joints but she did not back off. The cat suddenly dropped low on all fours and before Arcee could realize what he was thinking he pushed sideways and slammed her into the wall.

Bumblebee jumped down, slamming down just where the cat had just been standing. His shield hummed loudly as it became active, giving him a moment to glance down at Arcee who was currently shaking off the hit. The Predacon had retreated to the other side of the arena, stretching his legs two at a time and shaking off whatever shock of the fight that clung to his fur like scales.

"Take a break Arcee." Bumblebee rushed forward, liquid spraying in glittering particles all around his armor. His target turned to face the rush, holding his ground till the absolute last second before diving right underneath the warrior's feet, both getting out of the way and tripping Bumblebee up.

Arcee's vision finally cleared enough so that she could see the other two duking it out, "Bee watch out!" she yelled. Her friend raised to his full height the cat jumped onto his back and used him as leverage to jump out of the pit. They'd designed the arena in such a way that the cat couldn't get a full length of running in to make the leap but with Bumblebee inside he managed to clamp to the edge of the slick edge up top. Metal whined and screeched in protest under the Predacon's claws as he scrambled to get out of Bee's reach.

Bee had a hold of the beasts' ankle but he quickly let go when he saw a flare of light travel underneath the other's scales, his hand tingled dangerously with the electric spark almost down to his feet.

The Predacon huffed to his feet... then was greeted with two hands like smoke reaching out of the ground. He disappeared through the wall with a surprised yelp.

"Bulkhead!" Arcee growled, glancing around for the gauntlet.

"Got it! Got it don't worry!"

There was the shift of cogs and sliding plates of metal as stairs formed and the bottom opened up into the lower half of the sewer system. Liquid sprinted over the panels quick to meet the darkness below. Bulkhead lumbered down the steps to join them.

"Slag that fight was nasty... and he still had punches to spare!" he whispered as they moved swiftly but quietly across the walkways.

Arcee rubbed some of the liquid out of her optics, her other arm ready to shoot anything that moved, "He adapts... adaptation doesn't just come from instinct it comes from lessons learned."

Bulkhead wanted to ask what she meant by that but they were almost on top of Smokescreen's signal. They opened up a heavy door and were greeted by the rush of energon from a broken pipe on the far side of the room. The partly collapsed room wasn't just filled with broken infrastructure, scraps of bodies torn from one socket to the other lay scattered all over the floor.

"What the-?" Bulkhead looked a bit greener than his actual paint job, "What's he been doing here?!"

Bumblebee leaned close to the floor, picking up one of the pieces and examining it closely. He looked up quickly when they heard the distinct sound of Smokescreen passing through one wall to the other. The three spotted the cat running along the wall keeping pace with the sports car, ears pricked toward the Autobots' position, hackles raised, tail swishing back and forth. He turned when Bulkhead accidentally knocked over a small pile of trash.

The Predacon made a yipping sound before picking up a head out of the energon puddles and galloped off down one of the other tunnels.

Smokescreen stuck his head out of the wall, "Is he gone?" he stepped fully out when the coast was cleared, "Holy slag I shouldn't have let go of that stupid thing." the mech held up his arm, the heavy armored plating bleeding from where the cat had grabbed hold and shook his head violently to rupture the metal.

Bumblebee knelt in the carnage to see the pieces of body more closely. Yes there were civilian parts, very recent ones he remembered hearing a report that morning that some bots had gone missing. Some of the pieces didn't seem to fit traditional Cybertronian design. He picked up several samples and stored them away. When he straightened up he saw Arcee standing at the tunnel the cat had ran into.

"Arcee don't..."

"I'm not... that's enough for today. Least we know Shockwave and Predaking can't control all of their subjects." she sighed.

Feeling better about their odds against the new beast, the group returned home for repairs and rest. Ratchet was less than pleased at their attempt to capture the predator but instead of arguing he just patched them up.

Bumblebee set the samples on the doctor's desk, "These pieces were found where he was denning. Can you take a look at them?"

The doctor huffed but crapped the small bottles and poured the contents onto Petri dishes so he could examine them closer.

"Ratchet?"

"These are Insecticon parts." a twang of tension edging into his words, he adjusted the microscope to add a few more lenses, "I thought the entire hive had been jettisoned out to nowhere."

"They were... we just don't know where." Bumblebee pressed his lip plates together, "Maybe it was a stray one?"

"The hive doesn't have strays, if they do they are quickly eliminated as a threat to the entire construct." Ratchet dropped a couple of his instruments and leaned back in his seat, "You'll have to tell Ultra Magnus about this."

"Why me?"

"Because you discovered it, it's your story. If the hive is somewhere out near Cybertron we have a lot more to worry about."

"Ultra Magnus doesn't like when I talk why don't you-."

"Bumblebee, the group will follow you, you don't have to ask Magnus' permission to do anything he is not a Prime. However he is still one of your allies, we are all in this recovery together." Ratchet said with finality.

Keeping the news to himself for now, Bumblebee left the med station. The skyscrapers of Iacon were starting to wink to life as cables were fixed to allow the energon to flow through them. It seemed a cold spark of hope though, the buildings were mostly empty.

At last he found Ultra Magnus sitting alone watching... well nothing that Bumblebee could tell. The huge officer was facing a large courtyard that had been converted into a work area.

Bumblebee cleared his throat, "Ultra Magnus, can we talk?"

The other looked up at the smaller bot, "You may speak freely."

Bee wanted to say I can speak freely whenever I want... but he held that for another discussion.

"We went out to try and... capture the new Pred, instead we found remains, fresh remains, of Insecticons."

Ultra Magnus quirked an eye ridge at him, "Can you explain this find further?"

"It means that either the hive from Earth that we expelled into space is somewhere on Cybertron, or a new one woke up... and this also shows that the Predacons and Insecticons are not friends for now."

"If this is true, then we need to put all of our resources into fixing the space bridges to get reinforcements." he stood up.

"Great, you focus on that and I'll take a group to deal with the beasts."

"What?"

Bumblebee held his ground, "It would be better on the limited resources we have, you focus on supplies to the bridges and protect those, I'll take over the investigations and guarding of the citizens. How's that sound?" he didn't mean to ask at the end of his sentence but it was just simply his habit.

Ultra Magnus seemed to be thinking of a hole in the logic presented to him.

"We can't keep butting helmets, Ultra Magnus." Bumblebee added more firmly, "You can't be the only one carrying Cybertron's burdens on your shoulders. Even Optimus needed help holding the world up once in a while."

Optimus had not been mentioned for quite some time in front of the officer. At first he looked like he was going to chew Bumblebee's head off, then the anger retreated behind frustration.

"I... yes... yes that is a sound plan."

Bumblebee retreated, slowly at first then he quickly skirted away before Ultra Magnus could change his mind. It would take time, but Bee thought this was a good first step toward a beneficial relationship between them. Not that Bee would invite the officer out to have a drink but he certainly would prefer to be on good terms.


	7. Chapter 7

The hunt for resources started to get very heated. With no inventors from the Rust and Gold Age around they were reduced to scrap yard dives. Every dive they took the Predacons were not far behind, intent on stealing or destroying whatever they were looking for. It seemed like they were intent on keeping them in primitive times. However with coordination finally flowing between Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus the victories started stacking up on their side for once.

It was pleasing that all that was coming out of Shockwave's labs were rejects at this point, meant he simply could not find good CNA to work with. Bumblebee didn't like destroying Cybertron's history but whatever bones were found in the old mines or underground cities he ordered destroyed. From time to time, he would spot the cat watching them work. This sent chills through Bee's systems since the Predacon could obviously be much more stealthy than he was being. Obviously he was quickly chased off but his mere presence put the workers on edge. Arcee kept them from outright panic simply by talking them through things. A little compassion went a long way it seemed, he tried being more personable with them as well which was difficult since they still bore the Decepticon crest.

"If they can get this last part out of the ground they might be able to fire up the space bridge to 100%." Knock Out said as they patrolled the perimeter of the work site. Normally he would be tending to the workers injuries but so far nothing had happened, so he took a break from the pits.

"Which will be great, since one of the groups out there is civilians from the R&amp;D industry."

"Indeed, perhaps they can get the oil baths running all this Cybertronian rust is really grinding my gears."

"Luxury second, Knock Out." Bumblebee chuckled.

"Yes yes you're right... ugh this Autobot thing is very hard to get used to. This whole putting yourself second thing is exhausting. How do you do it, Bee?"

"You learn to recognize the rewards." the yellow bot grinned, he thought of seeing the civilians and his friends doing things other than calibrating their canons for the next fight. Games were starting to be brought up and participated in from both sides. That was what gave him happiness right now. Knock Out on the other hand just huffed and looked at the ground. Bee figured that being selfish from the start was an old and difficult habit to break.

Luck was on their side this day and the salvage went uninterrupted, as a bonus they even found the rest of the parts they were looking for and then some. The reconstruction of the space bridge would be complete within a few weeks and a full engagement could be accomplished. Ultra Magnus expressed concerns for survivors of the rust plague, less of infection and more of bitterness that they'd been locked out during that age. Bumblebee told him that they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

Bulkhead actually started up friendly competitions when bots were on their off time. Old games from the gold age started popping up, bets were made and laughs were exchanged. For a short time it seemed like the Autobots, Decepticons and Predacons were a far away bad dream. Occasionally Bumblebee liked to pretend that a natural disaster had occurred and that's why everything was destroyed.

After loosing a game that earthlings might call cards, Bumblebee took another walk through the district that used to hold the art gallery. He'd been doing minor repairs to the structure here and there, the main supports were still in place the walls were just missing. The young bot was trying to get power to flow back through the building since a lot of the pieces required energy to reveal their creator's thoughts. Today Bee decided to get to the second floor since he couldn't find the main fuel line in the basement's remains.

Boulders creaked in protest as the bot tried to pull them down. When that didn't work Bumblebee braced his shoulder plate against the biggest one and bent low, struts whining and gears whirling fast as he tapped his engine's power. At first just dust and pebbles danced across his armor, then he heard a big crack as the wall behind gave way. With the stairway clear Bee practically skipped two at a time to get to the top.

Unfortunately whatever hadn't been bolted down on this floor had gone missing. Bee spotted where a missile had exploded on the far side. Its shockwave had simply swept everything out of the building.

Disappointed but not deterred, Bee started picking through the rubble to find the next set of stairs. He recalled Knock Out complaining about not having enough elevators and to be honest, Bee didn't remember a time where they had actually had the luxury of one. Save for the portable helicopter pad to the old Nevada base.

Bee's wander was quickly interrupted when he noticed Arcee crouched on one of the roof tops nearby. At first he thought she was just sitting, patrols did come through here other than him. However she had the look in her face that she'd already found what she was looking for. Half of the platform was obscured by another building so Bee had to circle around and jump a couple gaps before he could see the entire situation.

Arcee was crouched in front of the feline Predacon.

The cat was sitting on its hind feet but by the time Bee drew a bit closer he nonchalantly plopped onto his side side, bright yellow optics never leaving Arcee although his ears flicked in Bee's direction.

Arcee glanced in Bee's direction since it wasn't the most stealthy. She simply held up her hand, telling him to stay where he was. This was no comfort to the young mech, she'd already taken a shot for him he did not intend for her to take another.

The femme stood slowly on two feet, the cat perked up and mirrored to all four. She tilted her head, trying to remember all of the animal behavior she'd witnessed on Earth. Obviously it had to be processed with a grain of salt since this beast was not a basic animal. They'd all come to the decision that this con couldn't transform, not with the collar on him. What use was asking for help when all you had was teeth and claw. Arcee also had a sneaking suspicion that Shockwave was controlling this Pred through some sort of psychic patch. Utter control over a highly intelligent creature was a very difficult thing to accomplish. The cat must've been sent on a mission to spy on Iacon, but specifics had never been told on what he could do with his time in between his stalks.

She would have to approach this carefully, if the collar worked like she suspected he would be forced to act on the impulse it provided. Without pointing her arm canon, she simply allowed her arm to shift into the weapons.

This was met immediately by an arched back and raised hackles and she reverted back the hostility ended and they were left just looking at each other. His response was the same when she tried to walk toward him unarmed. Bee saw her huff in frustration. This Predacon was trying to communicate something very specific without using words.

The femme folded her arms leaning her weight on one foot, lip plates pursed firmly together as she watched the cat. She hadn't told anyone, but on her patrols she would come across the cat more often than not, while she listened to the other bots complain about being attacked he never tried to start a spat with her.

His ears perked, eyes following the sound over one shoulder. Without another sound he leaped off the platform and disappeared amidst the ruins.

"Odd ball that one." Bumblebee said when Arcee joined him in the art building.

"His behavior doesn't make sense in their hierarchy, Predaking would've killed him by now if he was that rebellious... I'm also starting to think that Shockwave should have more control over him, but he wasn't able to make a complete control collar. I remember stories from his prisoners of wearing those things, kept them from causing a fuss when he experimented on them."

"Who would actually survive his prison?" Bumblebee asked.

"The Dinobots."

"Ah... I'm sure Ultra Magnus won't have a sparkplug bust when they show up." Bumblebee chuckled. He'd never personally met the Dinobots, but the tales that followed them were extraordinary. Animalistic and simple in some aspects, but who they were before still lived somewhere in their heavily patched minds. They still wanted to do good... but do good their way.

The sky began to lighten as the city's powered up, simulating a sort of 'day time' except the planet provided its own light. Bumblebee remembered sitting with Ratchet during an ebb in the fighting, he showed him maps and land marks built to remind the Cybertronians of the solar explosion that had nearly wiped out all life on Cybertron. With no suns anymore, it was old history now. Bee wondered how much more self inducing tragedy they were going to endure before peace ruled.

The two were leaving when all of a sudden the cat made a very rude return and body checked Arcee while she was in vehicle mode. The two rammed into a railing that failed under the impact and sent both tumbling down to the road below. Midair Arcee transformed but didn't manage to get her feet under her before the ground greeted her.

"Arcee!" Bumblebee yelled in anger and fright. The last he saw of her before a dust cloud moved into his sight was her being dragged away.

The ground tilted this way and that for Arcee, energon leaking down the side of her helm. Rage fueled her movements, helping her roll around and kick the cat in the face. He yelped and let go of her foot but did not back down. Immediately he jumped onto the femme and began snapping at her face. It seemed that he'd run out of patience for her to figure out his message.

Instinct was only able to keep up with the flurry of attacks and at some point Arcee's armor split open and she brought all her strength around and smashed him on the side, flecks of energon spilling from his scales. When he rolled she tried to get on her feet but he was upon her again as if they'd been polarized by the gauntlet. The feline barely paused to acknowledge Bee's presence when the warrior dropped down through a hole in the road above.

Bumblebee wished he had a relic on him at that moment, the two bots were so much smaller than him he was afraid if he joined in the fray that he would hurt Arcee in his attempt to get at the Predacon.

He took a chance and reached.

Snagged the cats tail and swung him around and against a pile of empty containers.

A high pitched whine followed the crash but instead of an explosive sphere, the cat came back twice as fast. Body glimmering with light as he burned through his power cells. He ducked under Bee's legs and went after Arcee who'd gotten up only to get knocked over again.

Growling in frustration she swept her arm blades directly into his shoulder a few times before he backed away for a few steps. He shook the light from his body in tiny droplets before running at her again. This time Arcee reacted with the same speed and managed to flip over and onto his back. She held tightly with her thighs, clasping her hands together and bringing her blades down onto his spine where it met his neck. After the first few blows she heard a distinctive crack of metal that did not sound like a Predacon's hide.

The collar had fractured.

Yowling in discomfort, he tried to roll her off of his back but she held on with all her might. When she was upright again she smashed her blades into his back again, doing her best to aim directly for the collar.

With one final blow the collar fell in two pieces, energon spilling everywhere where spikes had imbedded themselves into the Predacons' nervous system.

The dust settled and no one moved. Arcee looked down at the Predacon, his optics were closed tightly and there was a snarl on his face but other than that he didn't move. She glanced at Bee for help but he just gestured for her to get away.

Arcee was trying to figure out what to do when the cat made the decision for her. He pushed up onto his hind feet, gears whirled, armored plating scraped aside and nanytes shifted to make room for the transformation. Arcee had to back up a few steps as he turned around to face them. She was still close enough to see inside the nasty holes drilled into his neck for the collar, the energon had crusted over inside as crystals, unmoved until Arcee's strikes had shattered them.

"Thank you, Autobot Arcee, and my apologies for my behavior. The collar brought on aggression for your faction and it was difficult to control." the cat said.

"N-no it's ok."

Bumblebee got up carefully, irritated that he yet again had been unable to protect Arcee properly, "You're awfully friendly considering. Why were you singling Arcee out?"

"You large bots tend to use high powered plasma rounds which... although are painful do not effect the material of the collar, it needed focused kinetic strikes." he gestured to Arcee's blades, "Which I found in you."

Arcee looked down at her weapons feeling a mixture of shame and relief of the energon dripping from them, "What's your name?"

His audio receptors perked but his optics strayed to the horizon for a moment before looking back, "You may call me Cheetor, and I am not one of Predaking's lackeys... if you couldn't tell."

"What so you... just woke up from the tube and decided you didn't want to serve him? I thought you guys fought for leadership."

"In some cases yes." he brought up his hands and began to weave a bit of energy, unlike the lightening bolts however this one's energy was calm and focused, swirling into nothing at first then symbols appeared, "My thanks for my freedom." he held out the sphere to Arcee who accepted the gift.

The sphere made her hands tingle and warm up but not to an unpleasant level. She examined it closer and suddenly realized it was a 4d map of some sort. She looked up when Cheetor reverted back to his animal mode, neck sticky with energon. He hopped up and off the platform without another word.

"Well... how... business like." Bumblebee said as he walked over to see the sphere, "What's that?"

"It's a map... lots of different coordinates." Arcee perked up, "These could be where Shockwave has labs!"

"Really?" Bumblebee plucked the object from her hands but it immediately went dark, "What?"

She took it back and the data lit up once again, "Huh... strange it's tuned to me."

"If these really are Shockwave's labs then we need to start coordinating immediately, we have to stop the reign of the Predacons. Come on!" both Autobots reverted to their vehicle modes and returned to Iacon.


End file.
